News In Brief

ByCompiledRobert Kilborn and Lance CardenMay 7, 1999

The first Kosovo refugees to arrive in the US were greeted by Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first lady. They beat her to the punch, however, giving her a standing ovation when she walked into a gymnasium at Fort Dix, N.J., to welcome them. "Our hearts and our prayers have been with you," she said. "Now we want to show you that our hearts and our homes are open to you as well."

The Senate voted 92 to 0 to commend the Rev. Jesse Jackson for winning the release of three US soldiers captured last month by Yugoslav forces. Five Republicans - Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Jeff Sessions of Alabama, Craig Thomas of Wyoming, and John Warner of Virginia - refused to vote for or against the measure.

The White House was lax in preventing US missile technology from leaking to China through commercial-satellite exports, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in a bipartisan report. Concurring with earlier reports from the Pentagon and a special House committee, the panel said the White House largely overlooked the potential security risk in its promotion of satellite exports to China.

The House passed legislation making it more difficult to declare personal bankruptcy. All 217 Republicans voting on the measure - along with 96 Democrats - favored the bill. It was opposed by 107 Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The Clinton administration has threatened to veto the measure unless it contains additional consumer protections.

Speaker Dennis Hastert was pressed for a quick vote on campaign-finance reform by a group of moderate House Republicans who failed to win his commitment for a vote before September. The GOP House leadership opposes proposed campaign-finance reforms.

Support for gun control rose sharply in the week after high school shootings in Colorado, according to polls taken for the Associated Press by ICR of Media, Pa. In a survey conducted just before the Colorado incident, 47 percent of respondents said better enforcement of existing weapons laws was the way to limit gun violence; only 42 percent wanted tougher gun laws. After the shootings, 51 percent said tougher gun laws would be more effective, and only 39 percent preferred more law enforcement.

Tennessee was hit by the storm system that spawned tornadoes in Oklahoma and Kansas. Winds up to 90 miles an hour swept across the state, killing four people - three in Perry County, one in Madison County. Some people reported seeing tornadoes, but a state emergency-management official said the sightings were unconfirmed. The storm system was also said to be responsible for marble-size hail that pelted morning commuters in Atlanta.

Rains helped quell wildfires blazing across thousands of acres of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, allowing hundreds of evacuees to return home. The biggest fire continued to burn after consuming 5,600 acres, but risk of it spreading had lessened, officials said.